Stemming The Tide Of Cyberbullying

In spite of the significant improvement benefits associated with these innovations, there are still some fears that hss come with the emergence of the internet.
One of the adverse effects that has emerged with the coming of the internet is cyberbullying. This is a serious trend that has brought fears inti the hearts of parents, the world over.

Studies have shown that cyberbullying is the greatest fear of parents when their kids make use of the internet.
This is true, when you consider the growing prevalence of digital technologies in schools.

The Internet, smartphones and tablets are now the primary tools in the exhibition of bullying behavior.

With the unlimited access to the internet through smart devices by of teens and kids of this present age, the negative surge of cyberbullying is believed to have surpassed kidnapping as the number one fear globally.

In simple terms, cyberbullying occurs when someone appears to be tormenting, threatening, harassing, or embarrassing a young person, using smart devices or technologies.

In other words, cyberbullying comes in different forms, such as harassment, flaming, masquerading, etc.

Some ways in which cyberbullies operate include creating fake profiles of someone or impersonating another person with the negative intent of harming someone’s reputation.

In some other cases, you share a private photo or a private message with someone, and you see that confidential stuff being spread all over the internet. From where the leak came from, you do not know.

Why Cyberbullying Should Be Fought
It is necessary for us to fight cyber bullying yo a standstill to avert the negative implications of this surge are enormous.

Just think of the physical bullying, for instance, your kid goes to school everyday, and he is being bullied.

You realize that such kid becomes reluctant to go to school again, whenever he remembers that one teacher or another student who is a bully is waiting to harrass him in school.

Besides being unwilling to go to school again, such child is psychologically troubled. The emotional and psychological effects of cyberbullying are similar to those of real-life bullying.

Aside from this, such a kid can experience negative physical and mental health issues.

Kids who are bullied are more likely to experience depression, anxiety, feelings of sadness, loneliness, changes in sleep and eating patterns, etc.

Studies also show that adults who were bullied as a youth were three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts or inclinations.

According to findings from the “2016 Norton Cyber Security Insights Report: Family Edition, “nearly 57 percent of parents choose to check their child’s browser history, 46 percent only allow access to certain websites, 48 percent allow internet access only with parental supervision”.

“A concern for many parents is that cyberbullying doesn’t stop when their child leaves school as long as your child is connected to a device, a bully can connect to them,” said Ritesh Chopra, Country Manager, Norton by Symantec.

“Nearly one in three parents of children ages 12-17 agree that bullying is a more serious concern than other dangers, including domestic terrorism, car accidents, and suicide”, according to a national survey commissioned by Care.com.

What Parents Should Do‎
Interestingly, when a child is in trouble, the parents are usually the last to be aware. Kids find it tough to open up to their parents when they are bullied online.

Some of them fear that revealing to their parents about their situation will exacerbate the issue. It, therefore, becomes a herculean task for parents to protect their children if you don’t understand the problem in the first instance.

In this wise, therefore, below are some tips that parents should adopted in preventing the surge of cyberbullying.

Monitor Your Kids Activities Online‎
It is pertinent for you to know what your kids are doing online. Most of the time, some of these kids spend time on social media such as Facebook, so you need, as a parent, have an understanding of how various social networking websites work.

You can sometimes ask your children for their Facebook status updates, profile pages or Facebook wall. From there, you can have an idea of what is going on.

Build Trust Between You and Your Kids‎
It does not help at all, to be harsh to your children in situations that requires being relaxed and gentle.

When you are known for being harsh, your kids become too scared to open up to you on issues like cyberbullying when they find themselves entangled with it online.

You should always make them feel very relaxed and try ti have discussions regularly with your children about online issues. You need to let them have confidence in you by telling them to come to you for help if anything is wrong with them.

Let your kids understand the risks associated with the internet. Discuss rules for online safety and Internet use with them. Set time limits of how long they should spend on social media or the internet for them and ensure that they follow it to the letter.

Avoid Blaming your Child for Falling Victim of Cyberbullying
When your child is bullied online, relax abd do not raise to much dust by blaming your child.

At that point, what your child needs is for you to be supportive and as show understanding. You need to investigate to figure out how long this has been happening and ensure that you work together with your kid to devise a solution to stem it instead of blaming your child.

Conclusion
Apart from knowing what your kid is doing online, you need to also let your kid in on that good old advice that as you are careful of dealing with strangers in real life, so also, they must be careful dealing with strangers online. ‎